Cosmo.—­I had also the same happiness to boast of at my death.  And some additions were made to the territories of Florence under my government; but I myself was no soldier, and the Commonwealth I directed was never either so warlike or so powerful as Athens.  I must, therefore, not pretend to vie with you in the lustre of military glory; and I will moreover acknowledge that, to govern a people whose spirit and pride were exalted by the wonderful victories of Marathon, Mycale, Salamis, and Plataea, was much more difficult than to rule the Florentines and the Tuscans.  The liberty of the Athenians was in your time more imperious, more haughty, more insolent, than the despotism of the King of Persia.  How great, then, must have been your ability and address that could so absolutely reduce it under your power!  Yet the temper of my countrymen was not easy to govern, for it was exceedingly factious.  The history of Florence is little else, for several ages, than an account of conspiracies against the State.  In my youth I myself suffered much by the dissensions which then embroiled the Republic.  I was imprisoned and banished, but after the course of some years my enemies, in their turn, were driven into exile.  I was brought back in triumph, and from that time till my death, which was above thirty years, I governed the Florentines, not by arms or evil arts of tyrannical power, but with a legal authority, which I exercised so discreetly as to gain the esteem of all the neighbouring potentates, and such a constant affection of all my fellow-citizens that an inscription, which gave me the title of Father of my Country, was engraved on my monument by an unanimous decree of the whole Commonwealth.

Pericles.—­Your end was incomparably more happy than mine.  For you died rather of age than any violent illness, and left the Florentines in a state of peace and prosperity procured for them by your counsels.  But I died of the plague, after having seen it almost depopulate Athens, and left my country engaged in a most dangerous war, to which my advice and the power of my eloquence had excited the people.  The misfortune of the pestilence, with the inconveniences they suffered on account of the war, so irritated their minds, that not long before my death they condemned me to a fine.

Cosmo.—­It is wonderful that, when once their anger was raised, it went no further against you!  A favourite of the people, when disgraced, is in still greater danger than a favourite of a king.

Pericles.—­Your surprise will increase at hearing that very soon afterwards they chose me their general, and conferred on me again the principal direction of all their affairs.  Had I lived I should have so conducted the war as to have ended it with advantage and honour to my country.  For, having secured to her the sovereignty of the sea by the defeat of the Samians, before I let her engage with the power of Sparta, I knew that our enemies